Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-11-11
WHAT BECAME OF PATAGONIA.

WITH DGSAWC VT fAI hoOINiN'
There used to be place called Patago-
mia. 1t appears in our Biographies now
as "drear and uninhabitable waste,
upon which herds of wild horses and
cattle Craze, that are hunted for their
flesh by few bands of savage Indians of
immense stature" | am quoting from
school-book published in 1856, and in
common use in this country. The same
geography gives similar information
about the Argentine Confederation"
1t would be just as polite and proper to
call this the "Confederate States of
America" \ bitter bloody war was
fought to wipe that name off the map,
but our publishers still insist upon keep
ing it there. 1t is not a confederation; it
is a nation, with big IN" like ours
one and inseparable, united we stand,
divided we fall, and all that sort of thing
the Argentine republic. TO call it
anything else is an insult to the patriots
who fought to make it so, and reflection
upon our own intelligence.
Several years ago Patagonia was di-
vided between Chill and the Argentine
republic, the ministers from the United
States to those two countries doing the
carving. The SUBMITS of the Cordileras
were fixed as the boundary lines. Chill
took the Strait of Magellan and the strip
along the Pacific coast between the
mountains and the sea, and the Argentine
republic the pampas, the archipelago of
TERRA del Fuego being divided between
them. Since the partition ranchmen
have been pushing southwark with great
rapidity, and now the vast territory is
practically occupied. There are no more
wild cattle or horses there than in Kansas.
and the dreary uninhabited wastes of
Patagonia have gone into oblivion with
the "Great American Desert" The rem
nant of vast tribe of aborigines still oc-
cupies the interior, but the Indian prob
lem of the Argentine republic was solved
in summary way. There was consider
able annoyance on the frontier from
bands of rowing savages, who used to
come north in the wintertime, steal cattle,
rob and ravish, and the outposts of civil
ization were not safe. Gen. Roca. the
Sheridan of the river Plata, was sent
with brigade of cavalry to the frontier
to prevent this sort of thing. East and
west across the territory runs the Rio
Negro, swift, turbid stream like the
Missouri. with high banks. Fifty miles
or so from the mountains the river makes
a turn in its course and leaves a narrow
pathway through which everything that
enters or leaves Patagonia by land must
go. Across this pass of 80 miles Cen
Roca dug a ditch II feet deep and II feet
wide The Indians. to the number of
several thousand, were north when the
work was done, raiding the settlements.
As spring came they turned to 90 south
ward as usual. in long caravan. with
their stolen horses and cattle. Roca gal
Hoped around their rear. and drove them
night and day before him. When they
reached the ditch they became bewilder-
ed, for they could not cross it, and after
a few days of slaughter the remnant that
survived surrendered. and were distribu-
ted through the army as soldiers. while
the women were sent into a semi-Slavery
among the ranchmen they had robbed.
The dead animals and men were buried
together in the ditch. and there has been
no further annoyance from Indians on
the frontier.
The few that remain seldom come
northward, but remain around Punta
Arenas, the only settlement in the strait,
hunting the ostrich and other wild game.
trading the skins for whisky, and making
themselves as wretched as possible. The
robes they wear are made of the skins of
the guanaco, species of the llama, and
the breasts of young ostriches. There
is nothing prettier than an ostrich robe.
but each one represents the slaughter of
from l6 to 20 young birds, and they are
getting rare and expensive as the birds
are being eXterminated, as our but1aloes
have been.-[W. Z. Curtis in November
Harper's.
SAVED BY THE DOGS.
ssnA Won 500 tbat man laaIipu tbnsa